


Koudougou + Terrorists + Forgetting

by Sapless_Tree



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Amnesia, Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016) Whump, Anterograde Amnesia, Gen, Hurt Angus Macgyver (Macgyver 2016), Whump, also there's some terrorist dudes, idk anyway she just briefs them over video call, macgyver whump, will I ever write a story where Matty is actually there??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27638297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapless_Tree/pseuds/Sapless_Tree
Summary: “How many times have you told me this story?” Mac asked quietly.Jack was silent a moment before he answered. “A lot,” he said. “Any time you’re askin’ about the mission, like today. Or the days when it feels like you’reso closeto remembering on your own. I leave it be when you seem happy to just take a day off and not worry about terrorists anymore."Or: Jack tells Mac the story of their mission in Koudougou again and again and again.
Relationships: Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 38





	Koudougou + Terrorists + Forgetting

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I'm here. This one kinda ran a little longer than I wanted it to but also feels rushed. Odd limbo. Excuse the strange pacing of this one. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!

Mac awoke slowly; a throbbing in his head brought him to awareness much more quickly than he would have liked. When he opened his eyes, he knew immediately that he wasn’t home-- he was in Jack’s guest room. He was there often enough that it may as well have been his room, but that was beside the point.

' _Must have crashed here last night after the mission,_ ’ Mac thought absently, bringing a hand to rub at his face.

He remembered going out to track down the leader of a terrorist group in Koudougou-- Eric Diallo. The man had sanctioned a bomb to be detonated to generate conspiracy against Burkina Faso’s government and sway the public majority in favor of a revolution. The details of the mission were a little hazy after the bomb had been located, but Mac could only assume everything went okay if he was at Jack’s apartment instead of strapped to a bed at medical.

Mac took his time getting out of the bed, socked feet hitting the floor after several minutes of slowly shifting out from under the covers. It felt like someone was squeezing behind his eyeballs and brow bone; he couldn’t help but squint against the pressure. Mac pressed his hands over his eyes for a moment, hoping to will away the pain, but it didn’t help.

Uncovering his eyes, Mac shuffled out of the guest room. He was greeted by the scent of Jack making breakfast. His stomach rolled uncomfortably at the thought of eating, but he made his way to where Jack was anyway.

“Mornin’ Mac, how you feeling?” Jack said, looking up from the pan he was making eggs in. Jack was dressed comfortably and what little hair he had was messy, almost as if he himself had only just woken up recently.

Mac took a seat at the table and leaned his head in his hand. “Fine, my head is killing me, though,” he said. “Did we get Diallo back to Phoenix okay?"

Grabbing painkillers, Jack smiled at the question. There was something in that smile-- something Mac couldn’t quite place, something sad. “Yeah, we got him okay, hoss. He gave us all the information we needed to take down his whole organization,” he said, handing the painkillers to Mac along with a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Thanks,” Mac said, downing the pills easily. “So what’s with the sweatpants?” He asked, eyeing up Jack’s attire again. “Matty give us the day off or something?”

“Yeah,” Jack said, “or something, pal.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Jack began with a heaving sigh. He turned the stovetop off and put the eggs onto two separate plates. Then, taking a seat next to Mac and placing one of the plates in front of the blond, he continued. “Can you tell me what today is?”

“Wednesday,” Mac said, ignoring the plate of eggs. If he had been nauseous before, it was nothing compared to the sick feeling he now had in the pit of his stomach. “But I don’t see what has to do with Matty giving us the day off. Is there something wrong? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, the boss lady is fine,” Jack reassured quickly.

“Are _you_ okay?” Mac asked.

“Mac…” The expression on Jack’s face was nothing like Mac had seen before. There was worry-- Mac had seen that plenty of times-- but he just looked so sad and conflicted. Like he was deep in thought and trying not to think at all.

“Jack, whatever it is, you can tell me. You know that, right?” Mac said. He was really starting to worry.

“I know that, kid. That never makes it any easier.”

“You’re not making any sense,” Mac said, eyebrows pulling together.

Jack finally met Mac’s eyes. Mac couldn’t help but look away-- staring right into the older agent’s eyes was just so hard, and Mac didn’t know why. 

“The mission in Koudougou,” Jack started softly, “that was over three months ago.”

“What?” Mac asked. The horrible feeling in his stomach only intensified. Three months ago? That couldn’t be possible. “No. It was just yesterday we caught Diallo...” Mac fumbled for the right words, his hand running through his blond hair. “That… it doesn't make sense-- there couldn’t be… three months?”

It was hard to breathe. The scent of eggs was too strong. He was going to puke. Three months? _Three months_?

“Jack, I don’t-- I don’t understand.” Mac looked back at Jack, eyes pleading and confused.

“I know kid,” Jack said, putting an arm around Mac’s shoulders and rubbing his back. “C’mon, hoss, breathe with me here,” he said. It was such a natural thing, too, as if he had done it before. As if he had done it for his kid every day for the past three months. 

Mac tried to match his breathing to Jack’s, slowing it gradually as he processed the information he’d been given. The mission in Koudougou had been three months ago-- how could it have been three months ago?

“I know you’re confused, man,” Jack said calmly. He continued to rub Mac’s back comfortingly. “It’s okay, just take your time.”

“Jack,” Mac said, his voice still shaky. “I don’t get it. How...?” Mac’s head buzzed with so many things-- replaying everything he could remember about the mission. It was now more strange and alarming that he couldn’t remember disarming Diallo’s bomb. He had chalked it up to having just woken up before. But now he wasn’t so sure. There were more blanks than he realized-- most of the mission, in fact, came up blank. “Jack I can’t remember…”

“That’s all right, bud,” Jack said, shifting closer to his young partner. “You just get comfy and eat up, because it’s storytime with good ol’ Jack Dalton.” The sadness in Jack’s eyes never left, but he plastered on a big smile for Mac and fell into a familiar goofy disposition to try to put him at ease. He could have cheered when the corners of Mac’s mouth turned up, even if only slightly.

Jack pushed the plate of eggs closer to Mac. “Sorry you can’t have popcorn for breakfast, but some storytime eggs will have to do. I want you to eat while I talk. You got that?”

Mac took a small bite to appease Jack but made no move to continue eating after that. The former delta would just have to be happy with whatever Mac would mindlessly eat while he relayed that awful mission in Koudougou.

With one last resigned sigh, Jack began. “The op started off all right, as far as ops go. You know how it is. It was one of those missions where Matty didn’t have time to brief us beforehand-- it was wheels up immediately and…”

_“...and I’ll brief you on the flight there,” Matty said. She hung up the phone call, likely off to call Riley and Bozer next._

_“You think we’re ever going to get to spend even one of our days off not working?” Jack complained as he flagged down a waiter._

_“Probably not,” Mac replied, taking the check. “You jinxed it when you made the whole ‘there’s no way Matty will call us in’ day-off itinerary.”_

_“Gimmie that,” Jack said, snatching the check away from Mac, not leaving any room for argument. “And it was called the ‘Matty Webber: fun wrecker-less ultimate day-off file’ you know I’d never use the word ‘itinerary.’” Jack said, paying for the food that the two had hardly been given a chance to eat. “File makes it sound way cooler. Like it’s our own secret mission or something.”_

_Mac rolled his eyes fondly as the two of them made their way out of the restaurant and into Jack’s GTO. “Well it doesn’t matter what it sounds like anymore,” Mac said. “Because now we have a real mission.”_

_“You know something, Mac? The file had us jamming out to Metallica and some point,” Jack said, grabbing one of his CDs and popping it into the CD deck. “What do you say we cross that item off on our way?”_

_‘The Four Horsemen’ blared through the speakers as Jack exited the parking lot and tore down the road, Phoenix-bound._

“When we got there we were immediately sent to the plane,” Jack said. He knew Mac likely remembered most of that, but Jack liked to start at a point that Mac was familiar with to calm him down. The shock of being told that the past three months of his memories were missing was intense. Relaying the easy bantering and teasing was tried and true the best way to settle his poor partner.

“None of us really wanted to be there,” Jack continued, “but the world needed saving, so we were all very mature about it.”

_“This sucks so much,” Jack whined. “We were supposed to have a nice relaxing day off and now here the world is getting itself in danger all over again.”_

_“Oh boo-hoo, Jack. Suck it up and shut up,” Matty said over the video call. She was in business-mode, but that didn’t stop the fond teasing from her. “Put on your big boy pants, because this is important. You know I wouldn’t have bugged you four unless it was.”_

_“Be honest, Matty,” Jack said, “you were just waiting for something to come up so that the ‘Matty Webber: fun wrecker-less ultimate day-off file’ never gets fulfilled.”_

_“The what?” Bozer asked, eyebrows flying up._

_Riley snickered. “Oh, I definitely need to hear about this.”_

_“Hey, hey, focus,” Matty said, snapping her fingers. “We don’t have time for that right now. Global threat, remember?” The four agents went quiet. “Thank you. Now, I’m sending you to Koudougou in Burkina Faso. We have actionable intel informing us that a terrorist organization from Burkina Faso is planning an attack.”_

_“And our job is to figure out where this attack is happening?” Bozer guessed._

_“Actually,” Matty said, “we already know the target.” Matty looked down at the tablet in her hand, and a second later, an image showed up on the laptop screen they were talking to her through. “This is Koudougou’s Central Market. As a project under the SDC and Burkina Faso’s own government, the Central Market’s construction was meant to help strengthen the country and its mid-sized towns with commercial buildings. The project was a huge success, and the Central Market has become a hub of architectural inspiration, healthy business, and community engagement. This market is the organization’s target.”_

_“I don’t get it,” Riley said, “if a terrorist organization is trying to bomb Koudougou, then why are_ we _being sent in? Isn’t that something for Burkina Faso’s government to figure out?”_

_“Good question,” Matty said. She pushed a few buttons on the tablet in her hand and a picture of a man showed up. “Recognize him?”_

_“Yeah,” Mac answered, “that’s Eric Diallo, currently number nine on FBI’s most wanted.”_

_“Gold start, blondie,” Matty said. “Riley’s right that a bombing in Koudougou normally wouldn’t be any of our business, but Burkina Faso has made it our business. If we stop the attack on the Central Market, the prime minister has agreed to let us take Diallo back to the states to be put into federal custody there.”_

_“That’s great and all,” Jack said, “but how come they called in Phoenix?”_

_“The United States government doesn’t want to make a statement by neutralizing this threat for them. It’s no secret that Burkina Faso and the United States have good relations, but if it gets out that we’re stopping terrorists for them, then every country we’re friendly with might start turning to us about their terrorist problems.”_

_“And suddenly we become the ghostbusters for global terrorism,” Bozer said._

_“Exactly,” Matty said. “Your job is to see to it that the bomb doesn’t go off in the Central Market and that the organization’s leader comes home with you. You guys touch down in about sixteen hours and thirty minutes.”_

“I’ll spare you the riveting details of the flight,” Jack said. “Sixteen and a half hours is a long time to be on a plane. I did destroy you in a few games of war-- as always.”

“Yeah, you’re a champion at that one,” Mac said with a smile.

Jack eyed Mac’s plate, seeing that his partner had only cleaned off about half of it.

“My cooking that bad, hoss?” He joked.

“That’s not it,” Mac reassured quickly. “I’m just not feeling that hungry.”

Jack let out a small sigh. “I know you’re not, bud. Here,” he said, “I’ll clean this up. Why don’t you go get comfy on the couch? I don’t wanna talk about terrorists at the table all day, rather’d be nice and comfortable.”

Mac complied, saying nothing. He merely stood and wandered over to the couch; he plopped down on it and leaned against the armrest.

Jack dumped the eggs into a tupperware container and tossed it in the fridge. Turing the sink on, he took to rinsing the dishes.

“Hey, Jack?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“After we got to Koudougou,” Mac said slowly. His words were careful as he tried to recall the events correctly. “After we got there, we went straight to the Central Market, right?”

“Who’s telling the story?” Jack asking teasingly. He shut off the sink and wiped his soapy hands on the kitchen towel that hung off the oven handle. “But yeah, you got it right, hoss. It was a pretty time-sensitive op after that long flight. We didn’t know exactly when the thing was supposed to go off-- just the general area of where.” He took a seat next to Mac on the couch. “So we had to get there fast. Bozer was the one that found the IED.”

_“Uh, guys?” Bozer’s voice filtered in through the comms, nervous and quieted. “I think I’ve got something over here.”_

_“Copy that, Boze,” Jack said, “Mac?”_

_“I’m on it,” Mac replied, “headed to your location now. Be on the lookout for Diallo and his guys.”_

_“I got sat view on the outside of his location. No suspicious activity yet,” Riley reported from her outpost location-- a van parked a good ways away. She was far enough to not be seen, but close enough that should things go sideways, she could step in or they could bail._

_“You keep us posted,” Jack said, “You too Bozer, anything happens we need to know about it. We’re on our way, Mac how close are you?”_

_“I can see him from here, I’ll be there in a few seconds,” Mac said, making his way as quickly and inconspicuously towards Bozer as he could._

_Bozer stayed put under the vault, pretending to be interested in a vendor’s goods. Really, he wanted to keep an eye on the large clay bowl amongst the pottery available. It wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary at first glance-- the patterns on the sides of the bowl were intricate while the lid of the bowl was left plain. What concerned Bozer was the bit of wiring peeking out from underneath the bowl’s lid._

_Once Mac had made it to the vault, Bozer pointed out the large bowl to him. Even with just a few wires sticking out, Mac could tell it was definitely the bomb they were looking for._

_“We need to extract the bomb from this location. It’s too much of a risk to try and disarm it here with so many people around. The panic and chaos that exposing an IED would cause would make disarming it too hard-- assuming taking the lid off doesn’t trigger the explosive and kill everyone first. And if Diallo or any of his guys are around, they’ve got to be watching this thing to make sure people like us don’t come along and mess anything up.”_

_“Exactly none of that sounded like good news,” Jack said. He was outside of the vault the other two were under, watching over them but not getting too close so as to avoid suspicion. “So how’re we gonna do this. Grab the bowl and run or..?”_

_“That would draw too much attention,” Riley said. “As it is, Bozer and Mac are looking a pretty dodgy standing around like that. But if you’re going to do something you need to do it now.”_

_“Let’s just play it safe and buy the bowl from the vendor,” Bozer suggested. Mac and Bozer looked at the vendor; it was a woman, an older-looking woman at that. With more grey hair than Jack and a pronounced hobble in her step, it seemed to be the best route._

_“If Diallo or his men see they’ll know we know something,” Mac said. “But I think it’s our best bet.”_

_“Yeah well unless one of you magically learns how to speak Mooré that ain’t gonna work,” Jack said._

_Riley spoke up again: “That’s where I come in. I’ll have my vocal translating software up and running, you boys just have to repeat everything I say exactly.”_

“She wouldn’t hand that big stupid bowl over. At first, we didn’t know what tipped the lady off,” Jack said to Mac. “Maybe it was the skinny white kid speaking perfect Mooré, or maybe your accent was just bad.”

Mac rolled his eyes playfully, “well I’m sure you know what it was now-- you don’t have to be so theatrical about it. What tipped her off?”

“A story isn’t complete without theatrics,” Jack said pointedly. “But apparently nothin’ did. While you were talking to the lady she said that her son Eric-- as in Eric Diallo-- had already paid for that bowl a few hours before and was leaving it there until he was done shopping to pick it up. Said that he left the money in the bowl as a way to put it on hold.”

“But instead of putting the money in there,” Mac continued, connecting the dots, “that’s when he planted the bomb.”

“Bingo. Riley had you guys ask to be allowed to take a look, but I guess it came out wrong because old lady Diallo thought you two were trying to rob her.”

“And so what did you do?” Mac asked.

“Me? Why do you assume I did something?” Jack asked, putting an innocent face on. Mac gave a playful glare and Jack caved. “I swooped in and stole the bowl.”

Mac let out a laugh, “that’s so stupid.”

“Funny,” Jack said, “that’s exactly what you said to me then, too. Just like that.” Jack lowered his voice to mock his partner. “‘Jack,’ you had said, ‘Jack that was so stu…’”

_“...pid!” Mac yelled. He, Jack, and Bozer were in a dead sprint towards the location of the van Riley had been set up in. Four men were chasing them-- Diallo had had his men stationed at different places around the Central Market, and apparently, someone stealing a bowl containing their boss’s explosive had caught their attention. Just a bit._

_“Well it worked, didn’t it?!” Jack shouted back. “We got the bowl so we got the bomb, and we’re not dead!”_

_“Not yet!” Bozer shouted from behind them. A few gunshots ricocheted off of one of the market’s domes. Patrons and vendors screamed._

_“Riley start the van!” Mac shouted as soon as it came into view. “Start the van!”_

_The van started up and Riley slid open the side door quickly. The men fired off a few shots at the van, bullets plinking loudly against the metal. They were getting closer to it, but oddly enough, the four men stopped following them. They ran off, but the group of agents was too relieved to care much about why. They wasted no time getting into the van (Jack in the driver’s seat, of course) and sped off._

_Mac was in the open area in the back of the van, slowly and carefully removing the lid from the large bowl. It didn’t seem like there was anything attached to the lid, and Mac deemed it safe to remove it the rest of the way._

_“Woah, hey,” Jack said, turning around in his seat for a few seconds at a time to get a look at what his kids were up to. Riley was trying to identify any of the four men that had chased Mac, Jack, and Bozer to the van, Bozer had Matty on the phone and was updating her, and there Mac was, already seated on the floor of the van pulling the lid off of the bowl. “I thought you said that that could kill us all?”_

_“Yeah,_ could _,” Mac reiterated. “But it didn’t so…” he took a look at the bomb-- scratch that. Bombs. Plural. “Great.”_

_“What, what’s great?” Jack asked._

_“Diallo likes to be thorough, that’s what. There’s three separate devices in here,” Mac said. “He probably couldn’t get his hands on one big enough to take out the whole market and decided to make the blast bigger the easy way.”_

_“Can’t you disarm all of them?” Bozer asked._

_Mac’s gaze flicked from the bombs to Bozer and back again. “Well, yeah. But it'll take longer than we originally thought. Just keep driving, Jack. It’s best to be as far from the market as possible.” Mac flicked out his swiss army knife and got to work._

_He had only been able to begin to untangle all the wires when the van jolted and swerved._

_“Jack, what was that?!” Riley asked._

_Looking out the side-view mirrors, Jack’s expression paled. “I think I just figured out why those guys stopped chasin’ us on foot,” he said. The van jolted again. Two different vehicles were on them, no doubt Diallo’s group._

_Mac put the lid back on the bowl and stored it safely by some of their things. He knew he couldn’t disarm anything while the van swerved violently like that-- a jolt could make his knife slip and he could set off the devices by mistake._

_“We need to lose those cars,” Mac said._

_“Sounds great Mac,” Jack said, “there’s just one teeny tiny problem as of how in the_ hell _we’re supposed to do that!” Mac was already looking around the van for things he could use. He grabbed Riley’s empty bottle of water, screwing off and keeping the cap before ditching the rest of the bottle. He also grabbed the cap off of a full water bottle and passed the bottle off to Bozer without a word._

_“What am I supposed to do with this?” Bozer asked, but Mac was already rummaging through the rest of the van’s materials. He grabbed a box of matches, a paper clip, the roll of duct tape, and a few bullets._

“I have no earthly idea what you were doing with all of that stuff, but by the time I had turned around again to see how you were doin’ you were already crawling up into the front seat and rolling down the passenger window, yelling at me to not swerve anymore,” Jack said. “Of course that’s just oh-so-easy when two cars full of terrorists are trying to run you off the road.

“Sounds like I was making an explosive,” Mac said. “The gunpowder from the bullets, the strike strip, the matches. If you fill the bottle caps with gunpowder and duct tape them together, cut a hole in the top of one of them to put in the ends of the matchsticks in, then you could use the paperclip as your pull tab and easily have a small mock-grenade.”

“You’re freaky, you know that, hoss?”

Mac shoved Jack’s shoulder playfully. “Keep going. Did you throw me off the top of the van?”

“No I did not, thank you very much,” Jack replied. “And you’re right-- you did make an explosion. One of the two cars was up in flames, and the other was hot on our keesters. But you were already coming back in through the window.”

_“Ha-ha! Good work man,” Jack cheered, clapping Mac on the shoulder a few times. “But I think you miscounted. There were two psycho clown cars full of murderers, not one.”_

_“I know, we only had one box of matches. Gotta think of something else.” The van jolted hard when the remaining car slammed into them again. Mac nearly tripped getting back into the back area of the van, looking around for something to use on the other car._

_Riley spoke up. “I don’t want to rush you Mac, but sat view is showing that more cars are on their way. We need to lose this one and get those bombs disarmed before they catch up.”_

_“I know, I know,” Mac said, eyes flitting over things quickly as he tried to think. His gaze landed on Bozer, who was still holding the bottle full of water. “Do we have soap?”_

_“A little,” Bozer answered, “in case of pepper spray.”_

_“Grab it for me?” Mac said. He then went to the first aid kit, tearing it open and searching through it quickly for the hydrogen peroxide. Bozer handed him the soap a few moments later and Mac took the full water bottle along with it. Out of Jack’s bag, Mac took some of Jack’s iosat tablets (Phoenix medical had prescribed them as a precaution after a small stint with some dirty bombs)._

_The van suddenly cut a harsh right, sending Mac, Riley, and Bozer tumbling to the floor. A lot of the water spilled out onto the ground, but Mac wasn’t concerned-- he only needed enough to dissolve the iosat tablets. But there was no way he was going to be able to carry everything onto the roof of the van as is, and he needed something to mix the substances in anyway. The bowl._

_“Riley hold these,” Mac said, dumping all of his supplies into her arms. Carefully, he removed each of the bombs one by one from the large bowl._

_“What are you doing?” Bozer asked. “I thought it wasn’t safe to move those around so much?”_

_“I need the bowl,” Mac said. “And it’s too dangerous to disarm them, not move them. If jostling these things was going to set them off, we would have been dead already. Just try not to let them get damaged.”_

_“What if they do get damaged?” Riley asked as Mac took back the supplies and put them into the bowl. Mac made a little ‘kaboom’ sound with his mouth, using his free hand for emphasis._

_“Comforting,” Bozer deadpanned._

_“Jack,” Mac said, coming up into the passenger seat again, bowl and supplies in hand. He was dropping the iosat tablets into the water and mixing it. “Can you get those guys behind us?”_

_“Will do,” Jack said, swerving at the car._

_“And maybe hold us steady, if you can,” Mac added on as he crawled out the window again._

_“You get one or the other Mac,” Jack called out the window at the blond._

_“Get them behind us,” Mac shouted back. He poured the hydrogen peroxide into the bowl and added the soap to it. The van jerked to the left, almost sending Mac tumbling over the side of the van with it. But he was able to right himself as some of the solution in the bowl sloshed over the side. Mac swirled the water bottle around, making sure the tablets were fully dissolved before adding that to the bowl as well._

_Now all he had to do was wait for the reaction to happen._

_Riley’s voice came filtering in. “There’s a warehouse coming up in a couple of miles, if we can lose this tail, we can hide out there long enough for Mac to disarm the bombs, and then we can focus on tracking down Diallo._

_“Sounds good,” Jack replied, “Mac you ready up there?”_

_“Yeah,” Mac said, “just waiting on you and this catalyst.”_

_After another harsh swerve and close call, the terrorists’ car was finally behind the van. Mac willed the reaction to happen more quickly, swirling the bowl around._

_Jack was yelling again. “Come on, brother. Whatever you’re doing up there it’s gotta be now.”_

_“The hydrogen peroxide was only three percent. And potassium iodide isn’t even the recommended catalyst. Just give it a minute.”_

_“Nobody knows what you’re talking about,” Bozer butted in._

_“And I don’t think we have a minute,” Jack added._

_Finally, the solution was fizzing, just a little at first, but it was enough that Mac was confident that his plan would work. He chucked the bowl at the car; it broke upon impact, splashing the fizzing solution all over the windshield. It only continued to fizz and foam, expanding up until it effectively blocked the car’s windshield and made them stop._

“I’m pretty sure every single one of us was having a heart attack,” Jack said. “On the way back in, you slipped and almost fell right off of the van because you had soap all over your hands,” Jack laughed. But Mac didn’t laugh with him. “What’s the matter?”

Mac's eyebrows furrowed together. “If nobody got hurt then, and I never fell off the van… then how come I can’t remember most of the mission or anything else from the last three months?

“Well,” Jack started. This was always the part he hated the most, talking about what happened toward the end of the mission. If Mac never asked about it, Jack would do just as well to never talk about it again. Not like Cairo-- no, they sometimes mentioned Cairo and joked about it. Jack would be content to never utter the word Koudougou again. But he owed it to Mac to tell him what happened day after day.

“Well…?” Mac repeated when Jack didn’t continue.

“After we got to the warehouse, we took the bombs inside and you started doin’ your thing. It was going all right. You got one done and were almost done with the second. But somehow Diallo had gotten there, too. I think that he was with the group of cars that had been a bit further back, Matty says we didn’t clear the place well enough-- she thinks he was already there when we got there.”

“She thinks it’s your fault?” The question came out more like a statement. It was pretty obvious from Matty’s viewpoint that she hadn’t been exactly enthusiastic about her agents’ performance.

“Nah, kid. She doesn’t think it’s anyone’s fault but Diallo’s,” Jack said. “I thought she was blaming me, too. But we talked it out, we’re okay.”

“But you two still don’t agree on where Diallo was?” Mac asked.

Jack shook his head. “No, we don’t. But that part’s not important. What’s important is that everyone ended up bein’ okay.”

“I don’t see how this is considered ‘being okay,’” Mac said quietly.

“You’re alive,” Jack said.

“Is anyone else…” Mac picked at his cuticles, “you know…”

“Just you, bud,” he answered. The sadness that had hung in his eyes and voice were making a lot more sense. “You never do anything halfway, huh?”

Mac could imagine Riley and Bozer and Matty getting on with their lives. He was happy for them, really, but he had to blink away tears at the thought of not properly being a part of their lives anymore-- not that he could remember anyway. What had they been doing for the past three months?

“So,” Mac said, blinking hard against the tears, “What happened with Diallo, then? You said he was there. What did he do?”

“I don’t know,” Jack said. “I wish I did, but it all happened so fast. It was like there were thirty guys on us in a flash. You went down at some point and so did Ri. And before I could get to either of you there was an explosion.”

“One of the bombs went off,” Mac said.

“Someone set one of ‘em off,” Jack corrected. “It was intentional and… Matty thinks you’re the one that did it.”

Mac’s head snapped up at the accusation. “What? Why?”

“She says that if one of the terrorists had done it, they would have done to kill. Nobody died in that blast, but it stunned the group long enough for Boze to grab Diallo. But I saw you go down-- I _know_ you didn’t do it. The official report reads that you set it off, and Matty is keeping it that way. She says I saw it wrong.” 

Jack wanted someone to blame for what happened to his boy; he couldn’t blame anyone if Matty insisted that Mac had detonated the bomb himself.

“Could you have seen it wrong?” Mac asked.

“No, there’s no way it was you. You were out cold and then the bomb went off. I remember it clear as day, because…”

_...Mac stumbled to the left with the force of the punch that one of the men had sent sailing into his jaw. Another man from behind got a hit on him, and his body went slack, falling to the ground in a crumpled heap._

_Jack shouted for his partner, but it was lost amidst the other noises. Riley yelled somewhere off to Jack’s right and, turning in that direction, he could see her, too, get knocked unconscious. Before he could go to either one of them, several men were shouting and running from one localized area. The commotion had broken out closer to Mac, but Jack hadn’t really started to panic until he heard one shout something out about the bomb._

_“Mac!”_

_Jack only made it one step before the blast had sent him flying back. Mac’s already limp form was thrown several feet along with several other too-close terrorists and rubble._

_Mac didn’t move. He didn’t get up._

_Jack shouted his name again but got no response. There was blood._

_Bozer’s voice cut through the panic-- Diallo was down and he was taking him back to the van._

_“Copy that,” Jack said. He could hear how shaky his own voice was, but he didn’t have time to think about that. “I’ll get Mac and Riley and meet you there.”_

“I scooped you kids up and we high-tailed it outta there to exfil. Riley woke up after a few minutes maybe. You didn’t,” Jack said. “If we had realized it was that bad, we probably would have gone to a hospital first. But we thought it was just a concussion-- so we flew the sixteen and a half hours home.”

What-ifs rolled around in Jack’s brain for a few moments before he continued. “You woke up a few times during the flight. You were in pretty bad shape, really out of sorts and not understanding much. We should have gone to the hospital before we got on the plane, or touched down somewhere and gotten you to one.”

“You couldn’t have known, Jack,” Mac said. “It isn’t your fault.” 

Jack’s eyes were wet, but a smile graced his features as he nodded. “I know that, kid.”

“I’m guessing I’ve said that before, then?” Mac said, a sad smile finding its way onto his own face.

“Almost every day,” Jack answered, blinking away the moisture. “C’mere.” He pulled Mac close to him, hugging the blond. He hoped the simple action spoke the volumes of how sorry he was that he let this happen. If he had just been watching closer-- if he had just been a little faster. Mac’s arms slowly wrapped around Jack as well.

“How many times have you told me this story?” Mac asked quietly.

Jack was silent a moment before he answered. “A lot,” he said. “Any time you’re askin’ about the mission, like today. Or the days when it feels like you’re _so close_ to remembering on your own. I leave it be when you seem happy to just take a day off and not worry about terrorists anymore.”

Jack left out how some days Mac’s head hurt so much that he wandered through the day like a particularly lost zombie. No conversations were possible on those days, he was too confused and couldn’t remember much for more than thirty minutes at a time. 

Those were the days Jack was most sorry for what he’d let happen to his boy.

Mac’s grip around Jack tightened slightly. “I’m not going to remember any of this tomorrow… am I?”

Rubbing a few comforting circles onto Mac’s back, Jack gave a watery sigh. “No, probably not.” 

That was what broke the dam. Tears began to fall from Mac’s eyes, dampening the back of Jack’s shirt as he did his best to try to hold it in. “When…” Mac hiccuped as more tears fell. “When’s the last time I saw Riley or Bozer? Do they know?”

“Yeah they know,” Jack said. He leaned over, Mac still in his arms, and retrieved a box of tissues from the coffee table. He offered them up to Mac, who took them gratefully. “We saw them and Matty just yesterday-- taco Tuesday, man. Bozer made the best al pastor I’ve ever had,” Jack said trying to lighten the mood.

Mac only buried his face into Jack’s neck as he cried. "I don't remember.”

“It’s okay,” Jack soothed gently. He had begun to rock Mac ever so slightly. “It’s okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was not even a little bit the fluffy happy ending I had planned for this one and yet here we are. Apologies. Guess I'll have to come up with something else for the found family/fluff challenge thingy on tumblr, huh? Didn't want this to go to waste tho, so yall get to read it anyways. 
> 
> We are ignoring the grenade okay? I know nothing about making explosives but I saw someone make a smoke grenade online and so I used that but replaced the smoke pellet with gunpowder idk?? Also, I don't really know anything about Burkina Faso soooo I googled everything bout that. Sorry if some of the information is wrong
> 
> Should I have someone beta my stuff before I post it? Probably. Will I? Probably not. :)


End file.
